You do get used to them and instead of killing them most people tend to chase them into a box and then throw them into the bush outside.
I guess they are frightening to people who are not used to them:

When little spiders fall on me, I might get shocked at first, but my mom use to tell me when a spider lands on you it's good luck or you'll get a
message soon.

What I can't get over are the big wood and potato spiders. Potato spiders or at least what the Dorm Police claimed to be a potato spider was this big
orange thing crawling on top of a stuffed animal I had back in college. I remember screaming and saying something along the lines of colorful spiders
belong on National Geographics and not in my dorm room. A dorm cop killed it for me.

Years later in grad school, as Spider Karma I guess, a wood spider came into my room and gave me a near heart attack. This time it was brown in
appearance and way too big, we're talking hand big. I called my sister, because well that's what rational people do when they see big spiders and
the two of us tried to kill it together. A huge can of Raid wouldn't kill it. Clorox bleach spray wouldn't kill it. Finally, I threw my dictionary
on it. We picked up the dictionary and the thing still had the will to live. I screamed, my sister threw the dictionary on top of the spider again and
began jumping on the dictionary. After doing that for several minutes, the thing finally died.

What I haven't been able to figure out, to add to your discussion, is if camel spiders are real or just a hoax. Look at this picture below.

I think thats a picture of "two" camel spiders,the one on the bottom is biting a hold of the one on top of it and they are very real.Some of
them can grow to one foot across > en.wikipedia.org... camel spider bite > www.camelspiders.net...

I was stationed in Aden and during one of our sojourns to the desert we were billeted at a place called Abyan(?) where these Camel Spiders used to
crawl down the guy ropes of our tents. I was playing cards one night when I kept feeling this light scratching on my shoulder and when I turned round
there was one dangling off a rope and was trying to reach me. I had a photo of it for years but I lost it which showed it in a soup plate with the
legs well over the rim. I understood that they were unique in that they not only had normal jaws (mandibles) but also side ones too. The place we were
at was like a small oasis I guess and the trees were riddled with Chameleons which most of us had pets. The place was infested with flies so we would
put a spoonful of jam alongside us when we laid on our beds, and the Chameleon would feed of them as they buzzed round. There were also Asps and Sand
Lizards to beware of too so it wasn't a really nice place to be.

I live in south eastern,mass. and about 20 -30 years ago a 40 year old lady who lived across the street died from a black widow spider that bit
her on her front steps,thats what her husband told me,he said he was tearing out their old wooden steps and she walked out to give him lunch and it
bit her foot or ankle...> The top-10 largest "known" spiders and the photo for number 6 is hard for me to even look at for very long
www.top10notes.com...

Thank you for the military service you performed and i mean that most sincerely and thanks for that spider story.I would think that scorpions
would be something you and others would have had to look out for over there as well,ever see any of them? I use to date a girl whos grandfather died
from a scorpions sting while fighting in africa during ww-2.My grandfather was stung...by nazi artillery shrapnel...in his thigh and also when his
tank destroyer ran over a land mine,he lived both times,but he was never stung by a spider or scorpion...

I'm afraid my 9 month period in Aden was served during my 2 year National Service in 1958 and although classified as 'active service' there was not
much going on except for very minor Nassar protesters and the Yemen uprising.
It proved to be very educational by virtue of the different animals, lizards, birds, insects etc.,etc., that we saw amongst which were the small Gebel
Monkey's that inhabited the small mountains on the Arabian Peninsular. They would come down at night and invade our camp but were very easy to catch
by putting a marble (or something similar) in a large tin canister. They would rattle these and put their hand in to get it out but found that they
couldn't get their clenched fist out through the opening. They simply would not let go of their 'find' so consequently would just sit there as they
couldn't drag the canister around. We all made pets of these and became quite attached to them even though they were forever coming back clutching
other soldiers watches and rings. We didn't have to keep them tied up or anything as they were well fed and followed us everywhere. I made enquiries
about taking mine back to the UK but the costs regarding quarantine and transportation were far too much for me. We gradually introduced them back to
their colonies before we left.
I remember one day we had been on a 'recce' and were all sat round in the baking hot sun when an ice-cream van came out of nowhere - nobody moved
for about 5 minutes because we all thought it was a mirage!
But, I digress, regarding the spiders in Australia. We do have the very poisonous ones in the form of the 'Red Back' and the infamous "Funnel-web"
which are to be avoided like the plague. They can give a very nasty bite and although they can kill anti-venom is available at all hospitals the same
as for snake bites.
Just out of curiosity, did you know that the spider with the deadliest venom is none other that the dear old Daddy Long-legs but it's bite is so
minute it cannot penetrate a humans skin?

Originally posted by Krono
I completely forgot about this thread. Anyone got any interesting stories/cool pics?

There must be giant spiders somewhere, on some unchartered island.... Or underground.

No. A viable population would require thousand of species, and it wouldn't go unescaped since they would require enormous quantities of animals to
keep them fed, which would have a major impact on the ecosystem and would thus be detected. This in turn would require an extremely large area where
the prey could forage, which entails no small islands due to space limitations, or cave systems where the input of energy into the ecosystem is too
minimal.

Lucky for us humans I don't think the spiders breathing apparatus (a book lung) is efficient enough to gather enough oxygen to fuel a spider over a
certain size. I think thats the reason why all insects are relatively small.

Although if you ever have seen footage of the giant centipede eating, well, pretty much just about anything it wants. It will make you think twice
about giant spiders.

Originally posted by Krono
Thank you for your replies. I think scientist have already de-bunked this. They state that spider can't become giants (when I mean giants I don't
mean 100ft tall!) due to the low oxygen levels in the air. They said if they were big, they wouldn't be able to breath in enough oxygen to survive.

So I thought to myself...how do giraffes, elephants, crocodiles, humans, well large animals breath? how are we able to breath if the oxygen levels are
low?

Lungs. Insects do not have lungs so they lack the surface area to absorb enough oxygen to support a larger mass.

This thread never fails to give me the absolute heebies but for some reason I come back to it every time there are new posts.

Some kind soul has uploaded Curse of the Black Widow to YouTube. I remember seeing it as a kid and being horrified. I haven't watched it again since
but I'm about to now. It's in ten parts if you want to watch.

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